Sanitary shield for dental instruments.



0 1?. LAUDERDALB. SANITARY SHIELD FOR DENTAL INSTRUMENTS. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5, 1913. RENEWED MAR. 7, 1914.

1,09 3,865. Patented Apr. 21, 19M

WITNESSES A Z Q Z IZZ ZWM E R,

I D V Q ATTORNEY enAPIn r. LAU'DE'RDALE,

or PORTLAND, onneo N.

SANITARY SHIELD FOR DENTAL INSTRUMENTS.

Application filed March 5, 1913, Serial No. 752,179.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHAPIN F. LAUDER- DALE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Portland, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, have invented a new and useful Sanitary Shield for Dental Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in shields or guards for rendering dental instruments sanitary.

The object is to provide a device of this character which will protect the working parts of such an instrument, especially those known as angle hand drills, and to prevent them from being contaminated by the saliva of the mouth of the patient, also to guard against the clogging of the delicate mechanism therein by tooth chippings or the dust fro-1n corundum disks during the process of drilling or trimming a tooth.

Another object is to provide a cheap and simple device which may be readily applied to the instrument, will permit of the changing of the drill or other tool without necessitating the removal of the shield, and which may be easily removed and sterilized, at the end of an operation, while another similar shield is being used in the mouth of another patient, thus insuring to each patient an absolutely clean and sterilized instrument wherein there is no danger of becoming infected.

lVith these and other objects in view, the

device consists in the construction hereinafl ter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing, and pointed out 1n the claim hereto appended; it being understood that various changes in the form, size and proportion may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the accompanying drawing in which like reference characters designate corresponding parts in each of the several figures: Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the improved shield shown applied to an ordinary angle dental drill. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the shield detached. Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of the same.

The improved shield or guard consists in a comparatively long sack-like casing 1 made of pure rubber or other material impervious to water and preferably formed of a thin, tough tubular section of suflicient diameter and length to readily encompass the oper- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914. Renewed March 7, 1914. Serial No. 823,242.

at-ive portion of the dental instrument to which the device is to be applied.

One end of the shield is rounded and closed as at 2, while the other end 3 of the tubular casing is open, and is provided with a circumferential head 4 for reinforcing the same and causing it to stand open for the purpose of readily introducing the wide angular end 5 of the instrument 6, at the time of applying the shield to the same.

Located in the wall of the tubular shield or casing 1 and adjacent the closed end 2 thereof there is formed an orifice 7, which is adapted to be traversed by the laterally extending stem 8 of an ordinary dental drill tool 9, which is held in engagement in the right angle extension 5 of the instrument for the purpose of receiving rotary movement by certain mechanism (not shown). The walls of the orifice 7 are provided with a strengthening ring or eyelet 10 to prevent the same from coming into contact with and becoming worn by the rapidly revolving drill stem 8, during the use of the instrument.

It will be readily seen that, owing to the elastic nature of the shield, it may be easily placed over the angular end of the instrument, and the drill tool 9 introduced through the eyelet, which will serve to maintain the shield in proper positon to protect the working parts of the instrument from the saliva of the mouth or from chippings of the teeth or the dust from corundum disks, thus insuring longer life to the mechanism and reducing to a minimum the danger of contamination to the same and of infection to the patient.

Furthermore, it will be readily seen that the flexibility of the shield will permit of a change of the drill tool without the necessity of removing the shield from the instru ment, for the locking lever 11 may be easily moved laterally on its pivot by the finger of the operator, as is common in these instruments, the tool removed, a new one inserted and locked.

The flexibility of the shield permits the dental tool to be handled in the ordinary manner, as the hand of the operator can grip around both the shield and the handle of the drill.

The device may be used in connection with other dental instruments than the one shown and described, but in such case the position of the orifice in the shield will have to be changed to accord with the disposiorifice being strengthened by a metallic ring tion of the operative parts of theinstrument. 0r eyelet secured thereon.

What is claimed is r i In testimony that I claim the foregoing as A sanitary shield for angledental inst-rumy own, I have hereto afiixed my signature 5 inents consisting of a thin elastic elongated in the presence of two Witnesses.

Waterproof casing of tubular form, having one end closed by an integral rounded Wall OHAPIN LAUDERDALE' and the other end open, the said casing havlVitnesses: ing an orifice in the tubular Wall adjacent CHAS, H. ABEROROMBIE,

10 the closed end thereof, the edges of said JOI-IN MACKENZIE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

